Independent Foreign Language Learning: The role of online resources

Abstract

In recent years, due to strong interest in the use of technology for language learning, research has drawn attention to the potential advantages and disadvantages of online language learning compared to the more conventional face-to-face teacher-guided method. Through a questionnaire based on students’ evaluation of the role of online resources, a study has been conducted on 40 subjects from the ‘Faculty of Linguistics and Modern and Medieval Languages’ enrolled at Cambridge University to find out what strategies they tended to adopt most and what activities they considered as the most suitable for language learning improvement, as well as to discover students’ approaches towards the platform, in order to determine whether they could be defined as good web-based language learners. The results showed that surveyed subjects on the one hand demonstrated an overall positive attitude towards OLL through stable interest and motivation as well as good balance and appreciation of strategies and activities, but on the other hand lack of orality and poorness of exchanges emerged, as well as relatively short duration of sessions. What eventually came out is that individuals involved enjoyed online resources and felt comfortable after working with such internet-based materials, defined as viable tools for educational purposes. However, despite the fact that such usefulness of web-based materials reinforced the conception that the internet can help learners integrate contents and build knowledge, the majority of surveyed subjects did still prefer the traditional F-T-F method as the best way to enhance acquisition of language skills.